How Customer Service and Customer Experience Can Boost Your Business Results: The Ultimate Guide

a man standing in front of the bar counter
Photo by Thirdman on Pexels.com

Customer service and customer experience are often used interchangeably, but they differ.

Customer Service is providing support and assistance to your customers before, during, and after they purchase your products or services.

Customer Experience is the overall impression and perception that your customers have of your brand based on their interactions with you across all touchpoints and channels. Customer service is a part of the customer experience, but not the only one.

Why are customer service and customer experience important for your business?

Because they can make or break your relationship with your customers and, ultimately, your business results.

According to a report by PwC, 73% of consumers say that customer experience is a critical factor in their purchasing decisions, and 32% of consumers say they would stop doing business with a brand they loved after one bad experience.

On the other hand, 86% of consumers say they are willing to pay more for a great customer experience, and 65% of consumers say that a positive experience with a brand is more influential than great advertising.

So, how can you provide excellent customer service and customer experience to your customers, and reap the benefits of increased customer retention, loyalty, advocacy, and revenue? Here are some tips and best practices to help you:

1. Understand your customers’ needs, preferences, and emotions.

The first step to creating excellent customer service and experience is knowing who your customers are, what they want, how they feel, and what they expect from you. You can use various methods to gather customer insights, such as surveys, feedback forms, interviews, focus groups, social media, analytics, and customer journey mapping. Customer journey mapping is a powerful tool that helps you visualise and understand your customers’ journey from their first contact with your brand to their post-purchase behaviour and identify the pain points and opportunities along the way.

2. Design and deliver a seamless and personalised customer experience across all touchpoints and channels.

The next step is to use the customer insights you have gathered to design and deliver a customer experience that is consistent, convenient and customised for your customers across all touchpoints and channels, such as your website, mobile app, email, social media, phone, chat, in-store, etc. You can use various techniques to enhance your customer experience, such as user interface design, user experience design, content marketing, personalisation, omnichannel integration, etc.

3. Provide proactive and responsive customer service to your customers before, during, and after they purchase your products or services.

The third step is to provide customer service that is proactive and responsive, meaning that you anticipate and address your customers’ needs and issues before they arise, and respond to them quickly and effectively when they do. You can use various tools and platforms to improve your customer service, such as chatbots, live chat, self-service portals, knowledge bases, FAQs, social media, phone, email, etc.

4. Measure and improve your customer service and customer experience over time.

The final step is to measure and improve your customer service and customer experience over time by collecting and analysing customer feedback, satisfaction, loyalty, advocacy, and other metrics, such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), Customer Effort Score (CES), Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), etc. You can use various methods to collect and analyse customer data, such as surveys, feedback forms, reviews, ratings, testimonials, referrals, social media, analytics, etc. You can then use the data to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your customer service and customer experience and implement actions to improve them.

5. Customer service and customer experience are a marriage made in heaven

Because they aim to create a positive and lasting relationship with your customers and boost your business results. By following the tips and best practices above, you can provide excellent customer service and customer experience to your customers and enjoy the benefits of increased customer retention, loyalty, advocacy, and revenue. Customer service and customer experience are not optional but essential for your business’s success.

Start today and transform your customer service, customer experience, and business.

Join us at: https://bit.ly/GCCACXP

The BPGroup Accredited Customer Experience Masters® (ACXM) Program takes BPM & CEM Training to an entirely new level.

Become an Accredited Customer Experience Master (ACX Master®) through learning and experiencing the most practical, successful and proven toolkit for customer-centric change

Join us at: https://bit.ly/GCCACXP

For 2023…

> New Case Studies > 60+ takeaway techniques > 90+ help videos > Fully revised CEMMethod (version 14) > CX Rating (4E’s) integration > All material provided > Dedicated Professional User Group > Ongoing webinars

The Accredited Customer Experience Professional/Master difference

This premier series is designed for those seeking advanced professional skills in customer experience and process management, CX improvement, CX alignment, customer centricity, and innovation.
These are the Outside-In Customer Experience Management, BPM Methods, and Techniques that Deliver!

  • Uncover CX/Process Improvement opportunities in just hours
  • Identify Actions that will improve customer experience and associated processes by 15% to 40% within 20 days of deployment
  • Integrate and Evolve methods such as BPM, Lean, Six Sigma and Operational Excellence to Outside-In thinking and practice
  • Delight your Customers (making them your greatest advocates) through Successful Customer Outcomes and Customer Experience Management
  • Innovate to compete, set the market trend and even dominate your industry
  • Advance Net Promoter Score and Customer Satisfaction to the next level
  • Release significant costs, improve revenues and enhance service (win the Triple Crown) immediately

Hopefully, we will see you soon!
Register here: https://bit.ly/GCCACXP

Incredible opportunities for transformation with AI in Customer Experience

During our research into the application of ChatGPT into Customer Experiences, and as a prelude to the launch of the new qualification “Certified Journey Management Professional (CJMP),” we were amazed at how rapidly organizations are integrating AI capability into their core experiences.

I have included just three examples here of CX next practice, with references for those wishing to dive deep (hundreds of use cases),

And if you are interested in learning more about the three-day CJMP workshop, send us an email with the subject header CJMP, and we will get back to you.

  • ChatGPT can be deployed to create an automated customer service chatbot that offers speedy and precise solutions to frequently asked queries [1].

    This can prove immensely beneficial for businesses that receive many inquiries, improving their efficiency and rapidity.
  • ChatGPT’s natural language processing abilities can be utilized to examine customer feedback, deriving useful conclusions about frequent criticisms, recommendations, and developments [2]. Businesses can consider this data to make informed decisions and enhance the overall customer experience.
  • ChatGPT can offer individualized customer support through a conversational interface, which renders resolving matters or answering questions more convenient and faster [3].

These are merely a few of the potential applications of this technology.

It’s important to note that the specific industry and company will depend on the customer types, organization maturity, and business needs. However, the impact of ChatGPT on customer experiences is significant, with 67% of consumers worldwide now using chatbots for customer support [4]

References:
1. https://www.thankful.ai/chatgpt-for-customer-service

2. https://becominghuman.ai/unlocking-the-power-of-the-chatgpt-revolution-100-use-cases-to-try-before-you-are-fired-979e5986814c

3 & 4. https://www.revechat.com/blog/chatbots-use-cases

Do you want to embrace advanced Customer-Centric thinking and become Outside-In?

How You Can Become ‘Outside-In’… https://bit.ly/WhyOutsideIn

Start here and follow these simple steps:

Step #1 – Review the upskilling options to become an ACX Professional & ACX Master: https://bit.ly/GCCACXP

Step #2 – Get The Book: Outside-In The Secret *FREE* https://bit.ly/OI2021now

Step #3 – Get the Software:

Parallel | http://bit.ly/Parallel2021

Step #4 – Connect With The Community:

https://linktr.ee/SteveTowers

Step #5 – Keep Pace with Change:

Recent Keynote – The Hard Benefits of XM | https://cemnext.com/xmroi2023

Customer Experience qualification is now essential for career success

 ONLINE, LIVE, INTERACTIVE and Coming soon to a city near you 🙂 https://bit.ly/GCCACXP

Upgrading your skills and delivery for 2023 will determine your success.  Advance and Evolve beyond functional industrial age thinking to Outside-In customer-centric practices. Tried and tested this program has helped to create more than 140,000 professionals across 132 countries since its inception in 2006.

So if understanding and applying the techniques and methods deployed in Apple, Amazon, Zappos, Zara, Emirates and BMW compels you to adopt the ‘next practice’ approaches come and join us online next month or in a city near you through 2023.

Here’s someone who enjoyed the session:

The BPGroup Accredited Customer Experience Masters® (ACXM) Program takes BPM & CEM Training to an entirely new level.

Become an Accredited Customer Experience Master (ACX Master®) through learning and experiencing the most practical, successful and proven toolkit for customer-centric change

For 2023…

> New Case Studies > 60+ takeaway techniques > 90+ help videos > Fully revised CEMMethod (version 14) > CX Rating (4E’s) integration > All material provided > Dedicated Professional User Group > Ongoing webinars

The Accredited Customer Experience Professional/Master difference

This premier series is designed for those seeking advanced professional skills in customer experience and process management, CX improvement, CX alignment, customer centricity, and innovation.
These are the Outside-In Customer Experience Management, BPM Methods, and Techniques that Deliver!

  • Uncover CX/Process Improvement opportunities in just hours
  • Identify Actions that will improve customer experience and associated processes by 15% to 40% within 20 days of deployment
  • Integrate and Evolve methods such as BPM, Lean, Six Sigma and Operational Excellence to Outside-In thinking and practice
  • Delight your Customers (making them your greatest advocates) through Successful Customer Outcomes and Customer Experience Management
  • Innovate to compete, set the market trend and even dominate your industry
  • Advance Net Promoter Score and Customer Satisfaction to the next level
  • Release significant costs, improve revenues and enhance service (win the Triple Crown) immediately

Hopefully, we will see you soon!
Register here: https://bit.ly/GCCACXP

My Big STupid Outside-In Failure

I wasn’t always an expert in Customer Experience and Outside-In

In fact, when I became an Industrial Engineer I didn’t have the first clue about how to deliver Successful Customer Outcomes.

I’m going to share a personal story with you about one of my early failures…

It’s a little embarrassing to share, but I think it will inspire you.

It was a quest of five years looking for a standardized Home Loan process and system for a world-leading bank. My team and I visited 30+ countries, reviewed more than 40 IT suppliers, and talked with other top banks and mutual lenders. We sat down with the best business professors, authors and researchers and attended dozens of events on our quest…

And just as in Monty Python and the Holy Grail we returned home empty-handed. You can imagine the investment of time, energy, and budget to realize there isn’t such a thing as an Ideal Home Loan process and system (despite what the big consultancies and IT vendors had told us).

Our senior executive team in the bank was incredulous. In fact, deep down I doubted my own capabilities, I was exhausted and had failed with one of the biggest projects in the bank’s history. Or so I thought…

That is when the truth hit me square between the eyes. We were thinking of our business in the wrong way. My enlightenment was complete when Steve Jobs, in the same year 1997, said the now immortal words “You have got to start with the Customer Experience and work backwards to the Technology, not the other way around”

I had finally got it – we had to think Outside-In, put the customer at the center of everything, and realize using out-of-date business thinking has no place in the 21st century.

1997 – Apple World Developers Conference

Everything changed for me in May 1997.
Since then I have worked with the world’s leading companies learning and adopting Outside-In as a way of being. 
Trust me, if I can do this so can you.

In fact, you even have it better than me. You can bypass all the trouble I went through by simply learning from my mistakes.

I laid out a safe and sensible plan for you here: https://bit.ly/GCCACXP

The one you love…

What do you most admire in the ones you love? Remind yourself that is one of the many reasons you love them, whether it is a partner, child or stranger. Think about that and enjoy the feeling.

Steve Towers

Thoughts for your CX Day

Being uncomfortable should be comforting as it demonstrates you are in a change state. Learn to foster discomfort and make it your friend, It is indeed wise counsel.

Steve Towers

What do you most admire in the ones you love? Remind yourself that is one of the many reasons you love them, whether it is a partner, child or stranger. Think about that and enjoy the feeling.

Steve Towers

You are only as good as the way you feel. That’s why you need to focus on things that make you feel good. What is the one thing that today could make you fell grateful? Then you will feel good.

Steve Towers

James Dodkins Online Tour Rocks Customer Experience!

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! The ACXS™ training and certification program is now available online.
Get instant access to 25 video lessons and become certified as an Accredited Customer Experience Specialist – the first choice certification for CX disrupters.

https://acxs.kartra.com/page/acxs

You will learn how to connect with your customers at a deeper level, understand their expectations, where they came from and how to change them, uncover hidden needs, articulate ‘Successful Customer Outcome’ statements and build ideal experiences that deliver on these things.

Measure the CX6, calculate Return on Experience Investment, implement Proactive Experience Recovery, learn how to redefine CX in your company…and much, much more.

Things are a bit crazy right now, we’re all stuck at home, we’re all looking for ways to make the most of our time, we’re all trying to be as productive as possible – Why not become an Accredited Customer Experience Specialist Online, On-Demand, On Your Terms?

Use code ‘special50’ to get a massive 50% discount, taking lifetime access to the training down to from £860 to only £430!

And if that wasn’t good enough you can spread the payments out over 4 crazy low payments of just £107.50

https://acxs.kartra.com/page/acxs

The Customer Experience definition

What is the definition of Customer Experience?
The definitions of customer experience are many however in 99% of cases incorrect. Why so? Well simply because they are from a company viewpoint, that is ‘Inside-Out’.

A truly customer-centric definition needs to see customer experience through the customer’s actual experience. Accordingly, the CX definition the BP Group and partners endorse through our training, mentoring and consultancy is:

A customer experience is the sum of the thoughts, feelings and interactions a customer has about and with different products and services during the achievement of a goal or outcome

James Dodkins aka ‘CX Rockstar’

This talks neatly to the point that the experience starts with a need and finishes when that need has been fulfilled. It goes way beyond when the process for the company starts and ends.

What is your definition for Customer Experience?


So next time someone challenges you to define ‘what is customer experience?’ give them that.

You may even get people confusing customer experience with customer service but that discussion is for another day 😉

Do you want to embrace advanced Customer-Centric thinking and become Outside-In?

How You Can Become ‘Outside-In’… https://bit.ly/WhyOutsideIn

Start here and follow these simple steps:

Step #1 – Review the upskilling options to become an ACX Professional & ACX Master: https://bit.ly/GCCACXP

Step #2 – Get The Book: Outside-In The Secret *FREE* https://bit.ly/OI2021now

Step #3 – Get the Software:

Parallel | http://bit.ly/Parallel2021

Step #4 – Connect With The Community:

https://linktr.ee/SteveTowers

Step #5 – Keep Pace with Change:

Recent Keynote – The Hard Benefits of XM | https://cemnext.com/xmroi2023


Your definition of CX is wrong…

And the controversy continues… is this the one that will really upset some people?

To learn how others shape their Total Experience on behalf of customers, employees, stakeholders and shareholders join us at one of these venues soon…

Denver: https://denversummermasters.eventbrite.com

London: https://londonacxm2019.eventbrite.com

Johannesburg: https://joburg_44th_cppm.eventbrite.com

Dubai: https://dubaiacxm_2019.eventbrite.com

Total Experience Management and Ducks?!

CX Rockstar gets his feet wet…

Yes it really is yellow and squeaks

Going beyond process. Going beyond Customer Experience. Going beyond Enterprise Architecture. That is Total Experience Management. And that is going to be THE feature of the upcoming Summer session in London.

Review the program:
https://lnkd.in/dKVe3Ap

Register for the FOUR day session:
https://lnkd.in/dRYxuJm

The Successful Technique You Can Use to Transform Your Customer Experiences and Lower Costs, Improve Service & Grow Revenues simultaneously

Dr W. Edwards Deming’s famous quote “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing” is truer today than ever in an increasingly customer-centric Outside-In world.

Perhaps we should upgrade the quote to encompass the focus on the customer?

“If you can’t describe what you are doing as relevant to a Successful Customer Outcome, you shouldn’t ought to be doing it”

Progressive Outside-In businesses understand this truth (think Amazon, Starbucks, BMW and Emirates) who are connecting everything they do to delivering these Successful Customer Outcomes. If activities and systems do not explicitly contribute to customer success they scrap them, and in doing so costs fall away, service improves and naturally, revenues grow.

Think about that for a moment from the customers perspective. It is certainly more pleasurable if interactions are simple and smoother. And if these experiences involve buying stuff, customers come back again and again for more. Even in public service, it stands to reason that reducing complexity will release more resources to do more meaningful work that delivers greater value to citizens.

So how would you approach your existing Customer Experiences and associated processes to move in this direction? Is there a formula that can be applied that is easy to use and produces immediate results?

Indeed, there is! We refer to this formula within the CEMMethod™, an approach developed originally in association with companies like Virgin and Southwest Airlines. The method, originally released in 2006, is now in version 11 and includes 50+ techniques that significantly improve business performance and customer success.

One of these techniques within the CEMMethod™ is referred to as the ‘Disruption Factor’ and quite simply allows you to calculate the potential for improvement in any Customer Experience. Additionally, it helps you pinpoint the areas that would benefit from immediate attention, and in doing so win the triple crown (lower costs, improved service, higher revenues).

If you want to know more about applying the Disruption Factor in your organization join us at the upcoming webinar register your interest here.

I will see you on the inside!

Additional Resources:

>> Disruption Factor Webinar –https://events.genndi.com/channel/BPGDisruptionFactor

>> Certified & Accredited CX Training
www.bpgroup.org/training

> More about me and the companies doing this stuff
www.stevetowers.com

> Rockstar CX with James Dodkins
http://www.rockstar.cx/podcast.html

> CEMMethod™
www.cemmethod.com